Established in 1851, Clifton Nurseries is now London's foremost plant and garden centre. Their design, landscaping and garden maintenance teams have been creating award winning gardens and commercial landscapes for over forty years.

Clifton Nurseries had not traditionally had a strong IT requirement, but as with any modern organisation in growth, they could see the benefits that emerging technology had to offer their business. When Tek Response were recommended to Clifton Nurseries in 2003, they involved us initially in the installation of their Lotus Domino server infrastructure with Lotus notes.

In September 2008, Clifton asked Tek Response to oversee the installation of a number of mobile email devices for their site supervisors. Tek Response were able to offer advice on the benefits of the different available options with the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution proving ideal for Clifton Nurseries, providing a complete wireless platform that enables them to extend the benefits of their Lotus Domino messaging to their remote Site Managers.

As the resident orchestra of Birmingham's Symphony Hall, the CBSO performs over 75 concerts each year in one of the world's finest concert halls. The Orchestra is in global demand, acting as an ambassador for the city of Birmingham in venues and festivals across Europe, Asia and America.

The CBSO looked to Tek Response to fulfil all of their IT needs. Their first major challenge with the CBSO was to move them across to a self-dependent back office network, by segregating their systems and data from the city wide Birmingham Arts Network they were part of at the time, migrating it over to a newly designed network infrastructure that was both secure and appropriate for the Orchestra.

“Our relationship with Tek Response in terms of new technology is very ‘give and take’. They consistently monitor and review our Network Infrastructure, advising and recommending the most secure, efficient and logical IT roadmap for us, and similarly if we identify a specific requirement for new functionality, they will find the best way to achieve it” - Alistair Scott - CBSO Director of Finance

Since it was founded in 1913, Birmingham Repertory Theatre (The REP) has been one of the leading national producing theatre companies. It has introduced a range of new and foreign plays to the British theatre repertoire, and has been a springboard for many internationally acclaimed actors, designers and directors.

The REP had first come to work with Tek Response after the IT specialist and Tek Response Managing Director, Dave Graesser’s involvement in successfully helping the now disbanded Birmingham Arts Information Technology (BAIT) Board with their ticketing and IT Maintenance services, to a host of Arts based institutions in the Birmingham area.

Tek Response’s first major challenge with The REP in January 2008 as part of their involvement with BAIT, was when they delivered a major server migration project, to completely segregate The REP’s systems and data from the centralised Birmingham Arts Network onto their own private network of servers. This was no mean feat with The REP’s network involving around 60 office-based users and an additional transient user population of up to 120 users.

In early 2008, after speaking to a number of local IT Consultancies, Birmingham City Council had chosen Tek Response to assist them with the major task of continuing the functions of their original internal IT consultancy, Birmingham Arts Information Technology (BAIT).

BAIT had originally been set up by and for a city-wide network of Arts venues across Birmingham, to manage their IT requirements, and most specifically in supporting their existing box office ticketing systems. After the very successful intervention of Tek Response when BAIT eventually demerged, Tek Response had continued to have ongoing relationships with some of the local Arts venues and also with Birmingham City Council.

As a result, Tek Response were entrusted in supporting Birmingham City Council with its involvement in ArtsFest, and in particular in setting up and maintaining a special electronic ticket booth for the duration of the festival.

With approximately 1400 network users and in excess of 600 workstations, Tudor Grange School had traditionally evolved their IT systems internally, with IT Managers maintaining and implementing the school's network.

Over four years ago, the school decided to bring in some external support and as School Manager Paul Day explained; “we chose Tek Response - not just because we had heard good things about them from others, but based on the strength and quality of their presentation. There was a strong clarity in what they had to say, they knew exactly what they were talking about, and we were also pleased with them price wise.”

Recently, Tek Response were again entrusted to undertake a major technology refresh to guarantee that the school’s network remained at the cutting edge in terms of educational resource, whilst also ensuring maximum efficiency and availability for users.

Having agreed a support contract with Tek Response in April 2008, to support their existing network, The Drum received a call to inform them that one of their servers had gone down.

Tek Response, although not responsible for the original installation of the Drum’s Microsoft Exchange email server (set up using two physical hard drives that were mirrored), were able to proactively monitor the servers online and inform The Drum as soon as they noticed the problem.

In disaster recovery situations, it is vital to ensure that you have a clear plan - and are using a partner with extensive experience, especially in business critical situations. While some software solutions may simply need to be re-installed and then configured appropriately to recover, others such as Microsoft Exchange are far more complicated.

Initially, Tek Response investigated and then documented background information around the specifics of the school’s key issues and requirements. We then spent a day at the school exploring the design of the current network/server infrastructure in order to produce our Audit Recommendations Report.

The Kingfisher School, backed by the Chair of the School governors, moved forward with Tek Response’s recommendations and invested in new IT systems and a sound network infrastructure.

Warren Board had used an outsourced technology partner for a number of years, but a combination of key staff leaving and problems with their back up and disaster recovery solution, which simply wasn’t working for the company the way they wanted it to.

In moving their Network forward, they were also seeking to appoint a new technology partner. Having spoken to and interviewed a number of potential candidates for the task, IT Director Phil Richardson identified Tek Response as standing out from the crowd.

With a membership base in excess of one thousand members, the ICME recognised the need to invest in more robust and scaleable server hardware in addition to integrating the systems with key business applications.

Realising that the nature of their issue was very specific to themselves, the Institute spoke to a number of potential contractors before deciding to give the business to Tek Response - who they felt would truly give them a flexible and tailored approach.

The Shakespeare Hospice is an independent local charity, providing specialist palliative day care for people living with life-limiting illness, and a Hospice at Home team. Their specialist palliative nursing care and support enables patients to continue living at home with their families while receiving active treatment, or for as long as possible when active treatment has ceased.

In early 2007, the Hospice was planning to open up a subsidiary office to act as a drop in centre for people with serious and terminal illnesses who required help and care.

Tek Response were invited to work with the Hospice on implementing an IT solution that would allow them to expand their organisation whilst minimising cost and maintenance issues internally.

Formed over seven years ago, Birmingham Arts Information Technology (BAIT), was set up as a not-for-profit internal IT consultancy by and for a city-wide network of Arts venues across Birmingham.

In March 2007 the BAIT board invited a number of local companies to address the issue maintaining the BAIT systems.. This was no ordinary IT maintenance task, but instead was a huge strategic business consultancy challenge.

Having heard what each of the companies had to say, the BAIT board selected Tek Response to steady the ship, because in addition to demonstrating that they were qualified to deliver the best solution, they stood out clearly as the organisation that actually cared. They weren’t greedy and had the right calibre of business acumen to help.

Waddington & Ledger (W&L) Ltd. is a well-established private printing company, with an annual turnover in excess of £35 million. Founded in 1884 by Solomon Waddington & Arthur Ledger, they have over 150 employees and boast an impressive customer portfolio, as approved suppliers to organisations such as Boots, EMAP, Lloyds Bank, Open University, Royal Bank of Scotland, Proctor & Gamble and Haymarket Publications

Waddington & Ledger first employed the services of Tek Response in 2003, and have subsequently entrusted them to deliver numerous IT projects, throughout which their relationship has only continued to get stronger. Whilst W&L have a large workforce and internal IT resources, they have enjoyed a fruitful relationship with Tek Response on all of their major projects.

Paintbox Limited, is a tier one supplier involved with painting and assembly of components for the automotive industry, with an annual turnover in excess of £35 million.  They employ several hundred staff with over 120 network users across several sites in the UK

It was clear to Paintbox that ICT was seriously impacting the growth and success of their business. Steve Thomas, Business Systems Manager at Paintbox, explained; “We were aware that as we pressed on with the development of our business applications it would put more demand on this infrastructure, and it would be even more critical that it ran efficiently and reliably.” It was at this time, that Tek Response became involved.